SPRING!!!

We have enjoyed the easiest winter ever here in the midwest.  Still, I am totally ready for spring to be here.  The next ten days should be wonderful with all temperatures above 40 at night and shirt sleeve weather during the daytime!   Awesome. 

This batik was painted/waxed earlier and just finished this past week.  Though we can't plant tulips here --- they are 'deer candy' --- I do love all the colors and varieties of tulips.  The daffodils are blooming in the garden right now, too.  Hope you enjoy spring.

"Sunkissed Springtime" Watercolor and Sumi Ink on Washi  20 x 14"

CHANGING COLORS

Yesterday's painting is a reversal of this painting, but this one includes more background area. The technique of literally pouring watercolor in layers over protected, painted shapes helped develop the glow in the tulips.

The mood in today's post seems livelier, maybe because of the warmer palette. Although the process takes a lot of planning and work, it's so worth it when all those miskit areas are removed to reveal the luminous colors.

A scrubber brush helped soften some edges in this painting, too, but no paint on a brush ever met with the paper. Both paintings are from the archives.

"TWILIGHT" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Arches 20 x 14"

OUT LIKE A LAMB

Only a few weeks until spring gets here - we hope... My daffodils are finally poking their leaves out of the soil, but there's no sign of the snow drops yet.

These tulips were painted with layers of miskit protecting the already painted shapes that weren't to get any darker. After each application of miskit dried, color was poured over the wet paper, then allowed to dry, too... more miskit, then more poured paint - with a total of seven layers of poured paint over seven different applications of miskit. No paint brush loaded with paint ever touched the paper, except for signing it.

The batiks and taping techniques on this blog were created with the same process, but with different materials to protect the lighter values. Instead of miskit, masking tape can be torn to cover shapes on the watercolor paper, or hot wax can be painted on washi papers to protect shapes before adding darker values of colors. Whatever's used to protect existing values helps keep the lighter values light and untouched, while the darker values are built up, usually resulting in fresher looking watercolors.

It's a great way to teach the importance of value changes to artists. Color does seem to get all the credit for a good painting, but VALUE really does do all the work - defining shapes, distance, forms, etc.

Watch for a post of another painting of the nearly same tulips tomorrow done with other colors, resulting in a completely different mood. Painting the same picture several times seems to bother some artists, but I enjoy the surprises and lessons that each painting brings, since they all have their own uniqueness.

"PINK PARADE" Transparent Watercolor on 140#HP Arches 21 x 14"

GARDENS

Recently a new friend who's an avid gardener purchased this tulip painting I completed a couple of years ago. Since I've been puttering in the garden all day, it seemed fitting to post her painting today.

Her gardens were so full of treasurers, surprises, and intrique. Just by walking along the natural curving paths she'd created, you could sense that the landscaped area was brimming over with love. It was beautiful and delightful, just like the gardener!

"KLINGER COUNTRY" Transparent Watercolor Poured on 140#CP Arches 21 x 14" COLLECTED

YUPO SPRING

Spring has really, really arrived, and I'm finally sharing a 'spring time' painting I did last October as a demo in Middletown, Ohio. Yupo 'paper' can be painted on in so many ways, with a range of techniques, and this picture shows a much more realistic landscape-look than the rest of this month's YUPO posts.

My sister-in-law, Chris, took the reference photo, posted below, on one of her trips to Holland. The tulips were done blooming by the time we went there together. The photo has been used for information and inspiration, but, as you can see, I took a lot of liberty to change the layout and colors to suit the romance I tried to create in the painting.

If you're an artist working with watercolors or fluid acrylics and you haven't tried YUPO yet, it's time to start. Working on this surface opens up so many possibilities that are not available with regular, cotton watercolor paper.

YUPO is an extremely high grade plastic surface that will last for a very long time. Both sides are the same, and there's a very thin layer of foam between the surfaces. If you like to experiment, to grow, to try something exciting, order some YUPO and enjoy the journey!

"AMAZING GRACE" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 20 x 13" COLLECTED

WE WANT SPRING!

More snow today and ice too. It goes with the territory but somtimes I just have to whine about the weather. The older I get, the quicker I am ready for spring. Winter seems way too long this year, more than ever. (And then there's Tracy Wandling up in the dark, deep freeze of the Canadian wilderness. I better quit whining.)

The tulips here were lifted out of the wet, dark background - done quite a few years ago after taking a Cheng Khee Chee workshop at Kanuga south of Asheville, North Carolina.

Each spring, they have a wonderful creatively charged week of top notch watermedia instruction with up to a dozen instructors, all in a wooded setting by a lake. Each artist signs up for one instructor for four days. The evenings are packed with programs, and the energy there is awesome.

I haven't been able to go for two years and have really missed it. This April, I get to go back and will be in George James' class. YES! Hurry springtime.

"LIFTING OUR HEADS HIGH" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Arches, 22 x 15" SOLD